On Monday, the Sikh Coalition released the FlyRights app (PDF). It's a response to what the coalition says has been a history of significant amounts of secondary screening towards Sikhs and other religious and ethnic minorities at airports around the United States.

In the wake of September 11, many Sikhs in America have been unfairly profiled at airports. Many Sikhs wear turbans, known as "dastaars," which cover their "kesh," or uncut hair. Sikhs believe that wearing a dastaar is a religious obligation, and is done to symbolize faith, honor, and purity. Typically, dastaars are worn by men, although some women also wear them.

"The forms are drawn directly from the TSA website," Rajdeep Singh, the director of law and policy at the Sikh Coalition, told Ars on Monday. "The app allows users to bypass the website and reduce the time lag between when an incident occurs and filing a complaint."

The app has a very simple design, with three buttons on its home screen: "Report," "Know Your Rights," and "About the Sikh Coalition." The first button links to a form asking the user to input their name, e-mail, phone, address, airport, and airline flight. There is then room to describe the incident in question, concluding with a "Send Reports Now" button at the bottom.

Although the app has only been made available for a few hours, Singh said at least one report was already filed via FlyRights.

"Notably, it was a non-Sikh traveler," he added.

Other civil rights leaders and politicians have also praised the app.

"Unfortunately, the inappropriate actions of the few who engage in racial profiling create mistrust and suspicion that hurts all law enforcement officers," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), in a statement. "This app is an important new tool that allows passengers to fight profiling."

UPDATE: Chris Conley, a technology and civil liberties policy attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, called Ars to say that "It's great to have a technology that helps people communicate and know what their rights are. But the ongoing concern is that we still don’t know what the TSA’s policies are, and there is no app for that."

Meanwhile, on Monday, the TSA e-mailed Ars with this statement: "TSA’s diverse workforce is committed to treating each traveler with dignity and respect throughout the screening process. TSA does not profile passengers on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion. We continually engage with community organizations, including the Sikh Coalition, and individuals to help us understand unique passenger concerns and we support efforts to gather passenger feedback about the screening process. We encourage any traveler with a concern about potential discrimination to contact TSA directly through our numerous channels of communication."

I'm 100% for deluging the TSA with legitimate complaints, of which there is no shortness of supply.

And I know a guy who wears the dastaar; he is a contract worker in information to security to the US govt and flies constantly; despite clearly being a 100% safe person, there was an incident where they demanded he remove his headwear or not fly...

This should be released by the TSA. At the very least, it would allow upper management to identify airports that have problems with screening. Of course, a 3rd Party App allows the development of a scorecard.

I don't have issues necessarily with the TSA. I'v flown a few hundred times and never have been really burdened by THEM. I do have issue with some of the rules they are asked to enforce, but I can't blame the TSA very much for most of that. There is some inconsistency in application, but it's not terrible. Know the rules, be prepared, and getting through checkpoints is EASY and painless. As far as the screening goes, a quick dose of less radiation than i get in 10 minutes simply sitting in an aircraft at altitude is little enough that I'm fine with it, especially when some anonymous person in another room who can't see me on camera and doesn't know my name is looking at a computer degraded image, desensitized from seeing thousands of them a day all day every day. My doctor? HIM I'm worried about gossiping to people and sharing images of me... Ever been around a doctors office? In IT I service a lot of them, and they ALL gossip, ENDLESSLY about their patients. the TSA rep knows nothing about me other than a general 2D body shape and that I'm not concealing anything, I'm OK with that.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?). Have your stuff in order. Be ready when asked to do something. Don't wear overly baggy clothing or multiple layers and certainly nothing that covers any part of your face. (they HAVE to ID you, and they have to be certain you're not concealing anything, including what they know the machine can't see on it's own). If you make it easy for them, they make it easy for you. If you act like an ass, complain about the wait, or make their job hard, be ready for a pat down.

Its nice to have an easy way to report the issues, but the OFFICIAL channels are much better options in most cases. Reporting issues to an independent 3rd party with no right to file actual claims on your behalf means those complaints are not part of the tally the right people look at when deciding if an issue is important or not.

About 250,000 people board a plane each day. We hear of but a few issues with TSA that are in need of attention. Most of this is related to undertrained people and bad decision making. Being a TSA agent is a suck job for low pay, it doesn't exactly attract geniuses and long term career minded people, there are going to be bad apples, and sometimes we won;t find them until something happens. When it does, you sue, you win, you live happily ever after. That's life.

This should be released by the TSA. At the very least, it would allow upper management to identify airports that have problems with screening. Of course, a 3rd Party App allows the development of a scorecard.

I don't trust the TSA to handle the reports responsibly. It would be all too easy to either not respond at all or to respond with a canned response of "we are looking in to this report."

I don't know if this FlyRights thing does it, but I want a third party handling follow-up and harassing the TSA until they determine the complaint is actually false or implement corrective measures.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

In spite of writing a comment that is actually longer than the original article itself, you somehow could not be bothered to read the article and note that the app in quesiton actually uses the TSA forms and files the complaint with the TSA, not with a third party group.

While I largely share your experience with dealing with TSA (no real problems), I suspect that you, like me are a white man. Perhaps you should attempt some empathy and realize that not everyone has had the same experiences that you have, and that they don't feel like GETTING OVER IT when they are being racially discriminated against by our government.

tl;dr: Read more, post less. Try to put yourself in others' shoes before telling them that their complaints are invalid.

As far as the screening goes, a quick dose of less radiation than i get in 10 minutes simply sitting in an aircraft at altitude is little enough that I'm fine with it,

Different types of radiation affect living organisms differently.

Quote:

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?). Have your stuff in order. Be ready when asked to do something. Don't wear overly baggy clothing or multiple layers and certainly nothing that covers any part of your face. (they HAVE to ID you, and they have to be certain you're not concealing anything, including what they know the machine can't see on it's own). If you make it easy for them, they make it easy for you. If you act like an ass, complain about the wait, or make their job hard, be ready for a pat down.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

Fair game, I say. The only ones who should be given zero scrutiny are us irreligious folk. Some of us realize the life we have is precious because there isn't any "after-life." It's worm food, baby.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

If people wearing crosses were statistically more likely to blow up or commandeer an airplane, then yeah, it'd be perfectly acceptable. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I can't recall any instance of such a person attempting such a feat, whereas I can think of at least six other cases all having a common thread. None of them were Sikhs, so I do feel for practitioners of that religion who get profiled based on superficial similarities.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

If people wearing crosses were statistically more likely to blow up or commandeer an airplane, then yeah, it's be perfectly acceptable. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I can't recall any instance of such a person attempting such a feat, whereas I can think of at least six other cases all having a common thread. None of them were Sikhs, so I do feel for practitioners of that religion who get profiled based on superficial similarities.

Yes, the devastating affect Christianity has had on the world is far worse than blowing up a few planes/people.

Am I the only one who doesn't see this as profiling? Yes the headdress is of religious significance but just like the TSA still can't handle shoes staying on a person why would it be able to handle a headdress of significant bulk? The TSA still asks people to remove sweaters at times. This isn't equivalent to a cross, and btw were it metal the TSA would ask you to remove it and have it scanned.

Now I happen to think that the TSA's zero threat tolerance at the first checkpoint isn't the right way to do security. And I'm sure one of those chemical sniffers swabs would probably provide a reasonable alternative to asking for removal.

I see this rather as a bureaucratic issue of a very inflexible agency rather than profiling.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

If people wearing crosses were statistically more likely to blow up or commandeer an airplane, then yeah, it'd be perfectly acceptable. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I can't recall any instance of such a person attempting such a feat, whereas I can think of at least six other cases all having a common thread.

You mean other the the 1996 bombing of the Centennial Park, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Army of God, the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity, Aryan Nation (and the rest of the Aryan-style ilk) and numerous other small groups in the US as well as overseas? Anders Breivik just committed a little incident in the name of religion, too.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

If people wearing crosses were statistically more likely to blow up or commandeer an airplane, then yeah, it'd be perfectly acceptable. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I can't recall any instance of such a person attempting such a feat, whereas I can think of at least six other cases all having a common thread.

You mean other the the 1996 bombing of the Centennial Park, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Army of God, the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity, Aryan Nation (and the rest of the Aryan-style ilk) and numerous other small groups in the US as well as overseas? Anders Breivik just committed a little incident in the name of religion, too.

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

If people wearing crosses were statistically more likely to blow up or commandeer an airplane, then yeah, it'd be perfectly acceptable. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I can't recall any instance of such a person attempting such a feat, whereas I can think of at least six other cases all having a common thread.

You mean other the the 1996 bombing of the Centennial Park, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Army of God, the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity, Aryan Nation (and the rest of the Aryan-style ilk) and numerous other small groups in the US as well as overseas? Anders Breivik just committed a little incident in the name of religion, too.

None of which have significant relevance to the TSA. Their focus is on air travel, and of the Abrahamic religions only one has shown a tendency to attack air travel.

The fact that they're not supposed to profile is of more importance than who they profile.

For myself, I'd do away with most of the TSA. I don't feel safer with the post-9/11 checks, just more irritable. Metal detectors, run some dogs past, call it a day; fast and easy. As an added bonus, cuts down on theft in airports.

I suggest streamlining the TSA complaints process. Perhaps something like this: a complaint is made, it is read by an independent party and placed in a file. At this point, the TSA is shut down permanently and all of it's utterly worthless employees are fired. Complaint settled.

US airport screening is pure theater, a theater that is designed to enrich some insiders and prepare the public for the police state by using fear as a mechanism.http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/33745 ... oin-gropesAs always follow the money, in this case Chertoff.The pilots opt out, the flight attendants opt out, every single doctor that i talked to about this opts out. Suit yourselves people.http://www.blacklistednews.com/index.php?news_id=11170Did i also forget to metion that TSA headwoman opts out too. Laws are only for the sheep, they dont apply to the ruling class.

I can control what I wear, but not my last name or skin colour. It's funny how everyone says "Dress normally and you won't be targeted", but that ignores what it feels like to be profiled. The problem with profiling is that it doesn't MATTER what you wear viz. if a white guy named John Allen walked into an airport screening with a turban on, he'd breeze through. Change his name to John Allen Muhammad, and all of a sudden we've all got problems.

The thinly-disguised argument by the OP that Muslims are justifiably subject to extra security on flights because other Muslims have used planes to commit terrorist acts is spurious at best, and outright racism at worst. Should we screen Christians from owning ovens because of what happened in WWII?

Those who haven't been subject to profiling seem here to be the ones who are most actively defending it. I find it ridiculous, and counter to the ideals of freedom of the person that the same people would harp on about in other contexts.

TSA workers rotuinely don't know their own regulations. This app is nearly worthless. What, the TSA doesn't already know about the many complaints posted, um, everywhere? They don't give a rat's ass. They are now a self-perpetuating government agency. We need to vote in candidates who will dismantle the TSA or it will endure (and ignore) any and all complaints.

As I implied, he has been on planes literally hundreds of times on routine business in the past several years and all of them landed in one piece, and he is approved to work on security for the government meaning they already background checked the heck out of him and gave him his gold star sticker - I can hardly imagine someone at lower risk of blowing up or hijacking a plane. Maybe a toddler.

abadidea wrote:

there was an incident where they demanded he remove his headwear or not fly...

jbart wrote:

Did he ask for a private screening?

He doesn't go through the backscatter if that's what you're asking. However he had never been asked to remove his turban before, and suddenly it was Absolutely Critical That He Do So. Of course this upset him because he wears that for a reason, which of course made the agents more suspicious because he was getting defensive..., bla bla bla. Not every single TSA worker is ignorant of Sikhs of course, but these ones were embarrassingly so, according to the way I heard it. This was at a domestic airport a good ways inland iirc.

Allowing min wage workers to fall under the authority of the federal government is a terrible idea. These are the same people who beat up, and robbed a vendor because he would not offer them a police discount before they began trying to turn the TSA into a police force. Making them into a "police force" was asinine.

I never understood why big government was a bad idea until the TSA was formed. As with the Patriot Act, and the other things we can't get repealed now. The TSA are probably here to stay. *Sigh*

As far as the screening goes, a quick dose of less radiation than i get in 10 minutes simply sitting in an aircraft at altitude is little enough that I'm fine with it...

That 10 minute figure is bullshit.

I'll believe those machines are safe once a) the TSA allows an independent third-party like the FDA to evaluate the radiation risk from the machines; and b) once the TSA makes their employees and airline employees actually use them instead of just waving them through the metal detectors.

This should be released by the TSA. At the very least, it would allow upper management to identify airports that have problems with screening. Of course, a 3rd Party App allows the development of a scorecard.

What would make more sense would be to just have a 'final' station, just before exiting the TSA checkpoint, where you can fill in the form, with your name/flight info already filled in [because, duh, the TSA just scanned it all in], and you can check "i was profiled, i was sexually assaulted, some of my possessions were stolen, etc" and a description field.

Most likely, more than half the people going through would file a complaint, excluding people made late for their flight...

Profiling? get over it. It's GOING to happen. Don't want to be profiled? Dress well and not in rags, or clothing tied heavily to extremist groups of any kind (whether religious, social, or otherwise, if you look like a rapper people treat you like a rapper, no?).

Would you consider it acceptable to give extra scrutiny to people who wear crosses?

If people wearing crosses were statistically more likely to blow up or commandeer an airplane, then yeah, it'd be perfectly acceptable. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I can't recall any instance of such a person attempting such a feat, whereas I can think of at least six other cases all having a common thread.

You mean other the the 1996 bombing of the Centennial Park, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Army of God, the Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity, Aryan Nation (and the rest of the Aryan-style ilk) and numerous other small groups in the US as well as overseas? Anders Breivik just committed a little incident in the name of religion, too.

None of which have significant relevance to the TSA. Their focus is on air travel, and of the Abrahamic religions only one has shown a tendency to attack air travel.

You must not have heard of the IRA then. They planted a number of bombs on flights.

If you're going to profile, you'd do well to profile the real threats. Sikhs aren't a threat, and the similarity in the headgear between them and Saudis (the actual bombers of Sep-11) are superficial.

I don't have issues necessarily with the TSA. I'v flown a few hundred times and never have been really burdened by THEM.

Anecdote, much?

I *do* have issues with the TSA, which have nothing to do with the fact that I fly a lot for work.

1. They don't actually make anyone safer. At all.2. Every time they send bombs, guns, etc. through the machines as a test, the TSA misses 90% of them, meaning if the trrrrsts were actually trying this vector, they'd get through anyway.3. The TSA makes transiting at US international ports equivalent to missing/wasting an entire day at my final (business-related) destination. Want to know one of the reasons the US economy is in the toilet? It's just too hard to go there and do business. Fuck you guys if you can't roll out the welcome mat for international business, we'll just go elsewhere.4. All the money being burned running this useless, counter-productive, business-killing organisation could actually be used to make flying safer, more efficient, and faster.

4. All the money being burned running this useless, counter-productive, business-killing organisation could actually be used to make flying safer, more efficient, and faster.

When every time I board a connecting flight outside of the U.S. I must also went through a (TSA) security checkpoint at the airport terminals before I get on board on another plane. There's no different than what we have here in the U.S. Did you complain about that too, or this is just the American thing? I don't see your point here. There's time that you can avoid this mid-way check point is you flight non-stop. Find me one country that don't required a security check at all.

Awesome straw man! No-one is saying "don't do any checks". But do checks that 1) enhance security, and 2) don't penalize legitimate travellers. TSA does none of these kinds of checks, but prefers to focus on fingernail scissors and shoes, and long, long lines.

In the last six months, I've been through security in airports in Australia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, and the USA.

In every single country except the US, check-in, customs, and security check took less than 20 minutes total in or out, sometimes during extremely heavy "peak" times. My average time in the US was over 90 minutes, and in one case was four and a half hours on departure (needless to say I missed my flight), and well over three hours on arrival. One of these is not like the others.

Evolution wrote:

There's time that you can avoid this mid-way check point is you flight non-stop.

I'll send $1,000 to the PayPal account of your choice if you can find me a non-stop flight between, say, Beijing and Palm Desert (a route I flew recently). Or Tokyo (any airport) and Terre Haute, Indiana (another route I flew recently). I'll make that second one easy and give you either IND or CMI.

In the last decade I've done my level best to keep calm and keep on doing business in your previously great country. But, frankly, fuck you USA. It's ten years from 9.11, and you're still behaving like frightened children. And I am far from being in a club of one when it comes to ramping down business travel to the US, simply to avoid having days wasted in service of your paranoia.